Chapter 72

Chapter 72

His soul was pulled into another world by a gentle force, as if passing through the deepest seawater. When Pelan woke up, he still felt woozy.

Wait, why was he lying on the ground?

Pelan jerked his eyes open. Through his blurred vision, he saw tall, withered grass blocking half of the blood-red sky. In the other half of his view was a youth drenched in blood, eyes tightly shut, face pale as snow, his white disciple robes soaked through with overlapping stains of black and crimson.

It was Lou Guanyue.

Had he been transported to the moment when Lou Guanyue was expelled from the sect and thrown into the Ghost Realm?

And why was this perspective so strange? What happened to his hands and legs?!

Pelan made a horrifying discovery: he seemed to have turned into a sword.

In his mind, the clear, bright voice of the young Lou Guanyue rang out.

"Don't panic. The sea of consciousness of a Mahayana-stage cultivator is essentially a small world. As long as you can successfully awaken him, we can get out."

Pelan couldn't make a sound and could only ask in his heart, "Where are you? Why have I become a sword?"

"There's no you in his past memories, so this world can only automatically fit you into its logic. By the way, you're not Qinghong right now, just its scabbard. Don't worry about being soaked in filthy blood later." Lou Guanyue's tone was tinged with amusement.

Pelan had no words.

That was a small mercy, but the urgent task was to find Lou Guanyue's soul.

That's what he thought, but the problem remained: even if he found Lou Guanyue, being unable to move or speak, how could he awaken him?

Pelan received no further hints from Lou Guanyue. The sound of footsteps approached from afar. *This is bad*, he thought. In the Ghost Realm, besides transgressors who had smuggled themselves in from the cultivation world, there were only vicious and evil cultivators.

Lou Guanyue's luck wasn't great. Before he could regain consciousness in time, he was discovered by several thugs from the Ghost Realm.

Pelan's heart leapt into his throat. He wanted to wake the unconscious youth, but his body couldn't move, and he couldn't make a single sound. He was forced to watch, powerless, as those people slowly approached.

"Don't worry," Lou Guanyue's voice sounded in his mind again. "What you're seeing now has already happened. If he died here, you never would have found him to pick up in the Yaoye Forest later."

As if to verify this statement, as soon as he finished speaking, the youth beside him moved his fingers slightly, as if on the verge of waking.

"Well, damn. Our luck's in today. There's a junior from an immortal sect here! Search him, he must have valuable treasures on him." A hoarse, unpleasant voice rang out, carrying the unique accent of the demonic realm.

"What are you dawdling for? I can't stand these high-and-mighty sect brats! Once they fall into this Bone Barren Plain, they're just walking loot! Kill him, and his magic treasures will be ours!" A scrawny man spat, a vicious gleam in his eyes, looking at the youth like a fattened lamb.

A tall, one-eyed man beside him also revealed a greedy look in his eyes.

Shadows fell over them. As the long blade was about to fall, Pelan burned with frustration and anxiety—frustration at his own helplessness, forced to watch the youth get injured.

Just as that notched, blood-caked broadsword was about to touch his neck, the youth opened his eyes.

"Clang—"

A light flashed between the youth's brows. An indescribable pressure emanated from him, a vast and mighty force that made the three men stagger back two steps, their legs giving way as they knelt.

"A Transcendent Soul cultivator?!"

The wiry man widened his eyes, staring at the youth in disbelief, finally grinding out the words: "You're the Sword Venerable's disciple, Lou Guanyue?"

The youth didn't respond. He stood up, gripping Qinghong Sword again. Since entering the immortal sect, he had always been ethereal and elegant; such dishevelment was a rare sight, let alone having his sword bone dug out, his foundation completely destroyed, reduced to a cripple.

Yet the youth just casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, his dark hair spilling over his shoulders, then lifted his gaze and looked over indifferently.

The three men trembled even more violently. They were just third-rate rogue cultivators, barely at the Golden Core stage. A Transcendent Soul cultivator, even with just one breath left, could crush them effortlessly.

The wiry man was filled with regret. "Senior, this lowly one had no intention of offending," he babbled fearfully, his tone obsequious. "I'm willing to submit to you. I beg you to be merciful and spare our lives."

The Ghost Realm was also called the Demonic Realm. Unlike the cultivation world, there were no hypocritical rules here. The strong ruled, and violence was the only law.

The turn of events left Pelan baffled. Questions flooded his mind one after another: Wasn't the youth's cultivation crippled? How did he jump from Nascent Soul stage to Transcendent Soul stage in an instant? What step had he missed?

"He is the child born of a woman from the Si clan." Lou Guanyue's tone was flat, revealing no emotion. "The women of the Si clan possess a unique constitution. If a woman in the clan gives birth to a child, her cultivation base would be transferred to her child. Owing to this peculiarity, Si clan women rarely marry outside. Yet the clan leader's daughter, Si Menglan, escaped to the mortal world and secretly gave birth to a child."

Pelan's breath hitched. He almost immediately realized that this clan leader's daughter, Si Menglan, was Lou Guanyue's mother.

"Lou Heyu always dreamed of attaining immortality, but his meridians were weak, and his spiritual roots were impure; he had no hope of achieving immortality through cultivation. Yet he somehow heard of this secret and became obsessed with the delusion of using evil arts to seize cultivation from a newborn baby of the Si clan. Si Menglan, who was traveling in the mortal world, was deceived by him and gave birth to this child."

"But Lou Heyu discovered that this newborn child had no spiritual power at all. Feeling deceived by Si Menglan, he completely tore off his mask and confined the mother and child to a rear courtyard of the estate. The peerless genius of the cultivation world, like a phoenix with its wings clipped, died in the winter of the third year due to depression and illness."

Although Pelan had only caught a fleeting glimpse of Si Menglan in Lou Guanyue's memories, the woman who could give birth to a child with an innate sword bone and such extraordinary talent was never the lowly 'outside' concubine that the world spoke of, but a fairy who had accidentally fallen into the mortal world.

He instinctively wanted to comfort the other, but Lou Guanyue's next sentence made him freeze completely.

"What Lou Heyu didn't know was that a newborn infant couldn't possibly withstand such immense spiritual power. So, before the child was born, Si Menglan sealed her own cultivation. When his Nascent Soul took form and his soul grew strong enough, he could draw upon the power of heaven and earth to break the seal, bypassing the heavenly tribulation."

Pelan could guess most of what happened later. Lou Guanyue's cultivation was crippled, and by a twist of fate, it broke Si Menglan's seal, allowing him to directly advance to the Transcendent Soul stage.

Just as he figured this out, the youth had already dealt with the three robbers. Dragging his wounded, feverish body, he took him into a city within the Ghost Realm.

Lou Guanyue entered the Ghost Realm holding Qinghong, but he didn't wield it to leave the city a bloodbath.

After entering the city, Qinghong Sword never left its sheath again.

After leaving the Ghost Realm, he went to the mortal world.

The mortal realm was as bustling as ever. The first thing Lou Guanyue did upon arriving at the royal capital was to massacre the royal mansion.

Fortunately, less than twenty years had passed since he left; old acquaintances were still there. Fortunately, all the aristocratic disciples who had bullied and humiliated him were still enjoying their wealth and glory. Fortunately, the scourge lived for a thousand years; Lou Heyu hadn't yet practiced the evil arts he had collected to the point of qi deviation, and he didn't faint on the spot upon seeing him.

His ink-black hair cascaded down as he stood in the apricot rain, his features sharp and cold as frost and snow. After slaughtering over a hundred people in the royal mansion overnight, along with the souls of the emperor's favored nobles and their kin, he refined them into a Hundred Soul Banner.

Just as Lou Guanyue was about to leave, members of the Si clan appeared.

The newly appointed Si clan leader pointed at him, furious. "Lou Guanyue, you have fallen into evil ways, cruel and murderous! You will face retribution! Our Si clan cannot tolerate you. Today, we will clean our house, eradicate demons, uphold righteousness, and restore our Si clan's honor!"

Lou Guanyue ignored him. At that time, he had only one thought in his mind: *What a pity Si Menglan couldn't live to see her family.*

Then another thought occurred to him: perhaps this was for the best. At least she would never know that the family she missed only saw her as a pawn, fully aware of her suffering in the mortal world yet turning a blind eye all along.

The Si clan leader's cultivation had reached the peak of the Unity stage, a full two major realms higher than him. It was a near-death experience, but he managed to evade the Si clan's pursuit and returned to the Ghost Realm.

After confirming he was temporarily safe, Lou Guanyue shattered his dantian again to rebuild his cultivation, using collected heavenly and earthly treasures to reshape his spiritual roots.

After the Nascent Soul stage, each step of advancement was a huge leap, as difficult as ascending to heaven. Just from shattering the Golden Core to forming the Nascent Soul, many famed geniuses might waste a hundred years.

But for Lou Guanyue, this was as easy as drinking water. There were almost no obstacles before the Transcendent Soul stage. After secluded cultivation to the Void Refinement stage, the first thing he did upon leaving seclusion was to slaughter the outer city empty again, entering the true central region of the Ghost Realm.

Cities stood tall in the Ghost Realm, evil demons and heretics ran rampant, and he acted with even fewer restraints.

From shattering his Nascent Soul and rebuilding to reaching the Mahayana stage, he used only two hundred years.

Qinghong was drawn once more. He killed his "mentor" and reclaimed his own sword bone. The leading immortal sect, once the foremost in the world, was crippled by this battle, falling to the status of a second-rate sect.

Another century passed. Nearly all the sects and clans from the cultivation world that came to the Ghost Realm to crusade against the demonic path, along with the city lords of the Ghost Realm, each with their own sinister schemes, were slaughtered by him.

The desolate plains were a charnel ground of bones, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The stench of blood hung in the air for three months.

The halls blazed with light, music and dance never ceasing.

The magnificent and opulent pavilion hall was bustling with activity. At the highest seat sat a man with ink-black hair and white robes, of peerless elegance. He seemed utterly out of place amidst the chaotic revelry of demons. He had been silent for a long time when he suddenly lowered his gaze to the sword at his waist.

"Teacher, are you also afraid of me?"

Pelan, who had not spoken since Lou Guanyue slaughtered half the royal capital, was astonished to find himself transformed from a speechless and motionless scabbard back into a human.

The dazed and disoriented youth sat on the man's lap, yet the people below celebrating at the victory banquet seemed completely unaware.

Lou Guanyue rested his head on Pelan's shoulder, revealing a touch of vulnerability and pathos, and whispered softly, "Everyone else may fear me, may loathe me, but you cannot, Pelan."

Pelan lifted his snow-white face. Only then did he see the glimmer of tears in the man's eyes. His heart gave a peculiar lurch, a tangled ache of sorrow and fullness.

Pelan raised his hand and gently touched the chest that had once been pierced by a sharp sword. He let out a soft breath. "Does it still hurt? I truly wish I could throw all those who hurt you into a fire and burn them for a hundred years! No, a thousand years!"

The wounds on his body that Pelan had caressed seemed to only now begin to ache with a dense, throbbing pain.

"You are different from all of them, Pelan." A faint smile touched Lou Guanyue's lips. Seeing the heartache bring hot tears to Pelan's eyes, a trace of amusement finally colored his gaze, though it vanished quickly.

"I'm sorry, Pelan. Before this, I thought many times about killing you."

Hearing this, Pelan was momentarily stunned. He shook his head slightly, indicating he didn't take it to heart.

With Yue's abilities, if he had truly wanted to kill him, he wouldn't have given him chance after chance to get close. He might never have even stepped out of the Yaoye Forest, becoming just another wisp of a soul in the soul banner.

After witnessing the path Lou Guanyue had walked, Pelan was lost in thought for a very, very long time.

He clearly knew that Lou Guanyue was an ancient demon lord who had lived for a thousand years, whose very soul was barbed with aggression.

He clearly knew that he didn't need anyone's pity, only their fear—people so wary of him they couldn't eat or sleep in peace.

What he needed was to take his revenge, swift and complete.

But Pelan couldn't help himself.

Lou Guanyue was also a living, breathing person. That once high-spirited, proud, and unrestrained prodigy of heaven was not defined merely by a few one-dimensional, extreme labels.

"Don't blame yourself. I am very happy to have met you, to have picked you up from the forest."

Before Lou Guanyue could gather his thoughts, Pelan earnestly lifted his neck and kissed his forehead. Then, with a smile, he made a solemn promise: "Yue, I swear to the thirteen deities, I will love you forever and protect you, ensuring you a life free of worry and misfortune."

"Come home with me, okay?"

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Author's Note: Confetti, confetti! Finally said it QAQ